


The Last Sunrise

by Maze316



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Existential Crisis, Gen, Lowkey ignoring Explorers of Sky ending exists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 00:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16230134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maze316/pseuds/Maze316
Summary: Grovyle has returned to the future for the last time. He, Dusknoir, and Celebi face their fate, together. This is what they wanted, isn't it?Some truths are harder to accept when you're looking them in the face.





	The Last Sunrise

“Well, is this what you wanted? To live your last moments in this vacuity of life? I hope you enjoy the present, Grovyle, because it’s the last thing you’re going to experience whether you like it or not.”

Grovyle opened his eyes. He could see nothing — darkness had replaced the blinding light of the time portal. He could feel nothing — he knew this darkness was not of the past, cold and replenishing, but it was lukewarm and empty. Dusknoir spoke to him in the future.

Something was different, he thought, his eyes adjusting to the smog. The heavy air was sharp with something like anticipation. It was palpable, and it made his heart race with adrenaline. He could hear the stirring of impatient Pokemon in the shadows. They didn’t know what was coming, but their instincts still waved red flags.

“Don’t act smart,” Grovyle barked. “You’re the one who wanted to preserve this timeline.”

“I'm only reminding you that this is what you sacrificed for.” Dusknoir stood alert, his single eye pinned on something Grovyle could not discern. His own eyes were still not fully adjusted to the dark, and he wondered if they ever would.

“Why aren’t you running back to Primal Dialga? Aren’t you going to give it one last shot?”

“It’s too late. Listen closely.”

“Listen to what—”

“ _Shh!_ Listen.”

Grovyle shut his mouth. He closed his eyes — they weren’t doing him any good anyway. There was something faint under the anxious pacing of the wilderness. It was almost imperceptible, but he could hear it.

The God of Time was screaming.

“It sounds like your little friends were lucky enough to reach Master Dialga.”

“So they’ve done it? They’ve—”

“Not so fast. They’ve _reached_ him. Master Dialga’s anger transcends what we perceive as time. What you hear is his anger at their presence. He still feels it now.”

“But why would he be angry? He hasn’t been corrupted in the past.”

“You don’t seem to understand the existence of a Time God.”

“They’re fighting him?” Grovyle’s voice came out weakly.

Dusknoir nodded. “They don’t stand a chance. But if they’re successful… This sound will be the last thing we hear on this forsaken planet.”

The both of them listened to the distant uproar. A roar that transcended time was a powerful thing indeed. Grovyle realized it was what was unsettling the Pokemon. It unsettled himself. The depths of his subconscious knew that such a distortion of time should not be happening.

“You know you made it worse for them, don’t you?” Dusknoir said.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think that little time-weaseling friend of yours is an imbecile?”

Within a blink, a pink streak shot across Grovyle’s vision. Celebi was suddenly inches from Dusknoir’s single eye, her face bright red.

“I won’t let you call me that! How dare you talk behind my back when you think I’m not here! I’ve had enough from you!”

Dusknoir grabbed her in a single fist. She squeaked like a toy as she was engulfed in his hand.

“Celebi!” Grovyle called out.

“If you gave me enough time to explain, you’d understand that I meant you _aren’t_ an imbecile.” Dusknoir stared at Celebi until the color drained from her face. Then he let go. “You don’t think Celebi here would send you to the past too late, do you? She seems smart enough to give you enough time to accomplish your mission. Isn’t that right?”

“Of course I am!” Celebi spat, and flew to Grovyle’s side. Grovyle started to look her over for potential bruises, but she waved off his concern, muttering, “ _I’m fine._ ”

“You’d be correct. Celebi calculated what would’ve been the perfect moment to send you back in time. That is, before you went back in time.”

“Stop being obscure, Dusknoir,” Grovyle growled.

“Every time we travel back to the past, the deterioration of time amplifies.”

“What are you talking about?” Celebi asked.

“The Paralysis, is, in a sense, like a disease. Normally, time to us is linear. I won’t waste my time explaining to you how it’s not. When you opened the portal from the present to the past, it was a contamination. As the two instances of time converged, some of the corruption here infected the time there. Do you understand? Every time you two and your senseless human partner went back in time, you were further aggravating the very past you wanted to save.”

“You’re lying,” Grovyle said.

“I ask you again. Do you think Celebi is an imbecile?”

Grovyle said nothing.

“It was like touching puss to an open wound. And you, my companions, opened that wound in time.” Dusknoir looked back to where the screaming originated. “I suppose I should be happy you doomed your mission. But my intuition tells me not to let my guard down. Not yet.”

Grovyle picked up on something. His gut surged with tension. He felt sick, almost, like his fatigue was catching up to him. But he did not waver. The subtle shifting in his vision was not from him. It was the world itself.

“You think they could win, don’t you?” he asked.

“I have not dismissed the possibility.”

“They have to win.”

Dusknoir did not respond.

“Grovyle, do you feel it?” Celebi murmured.

“I do,” Grovyle whispered back. “Our time is fast approaching. I think Dusknoir realizes that, too.”

It felt more and more like the stagnant air was thinning, although it was impossible to tell whether it was, or if it was simply a reflection of their growing apprehension.

“We won, didn’t we?” Grovyle asked.

“It seems we have, my dear Grovyle.”

“Tell me,” Dusknoir said. “Do you expect something from this? Some kind of afterlife? Is Arceus waiting to embrace your mortal souls? This is not some average death we face. We face nothing but the void.”

“How is that any better than ‘this vacuity of life?’” Grovyle asked.

“Existence is the greatest gift of all. Do you not understand? I have seen countless lives pass over. I had accepted the threat of death long ago. This is not death.”

He looked down to Grovyle and Celebi.

“Did you ask the Pokemon out there if they were willing to accept a fate worse than death? They know it’s coming. Even in their animalistic haze, they know deep down that they are not long for this world. Did you ask them if they wanted this?”

“It is a mercy,” Celebi said.

“A mercy.” Dusknoir nodded. No signs of emotion could pass through his single eye, but they could feel the anger behind his voice as he looked to the sky and repeated, “Mercy.”

Grovyle kept glancing at motion in the corner of his eye. The distortions of the world were more obvious now. Celebi seemed to ignore it, staring into space.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” Grovyle asked.

“It is a small disadvantage to time travel,” Celebi joked. “I seem to be all intertangled in it.”

Grovyle took her small hand in his.

“Thank you for—”

“There’s no need to thank me. You know I wanted this. Maybe even more than you did.”

Grovyle nodded. He pretended not to notice the flush in Celebi’s cheeks, resisting the darkness that was overtaking them.

“Grovyle,” Celebi started, “You should know that I always—”

“I know,” he stopped her. “I know. I always did.”

Their hands were shaking. At first, of fear, and now, they realized, it was of something greater. Lights flickered in his vision.

“Remember your first sunrise?” Celebi asked.

“Of course I do.”

“Think of that. I am.”

“I can’t feel your hand, Celebi.”

“Yes, you can. We’re sitting together and watching the sun rise.”

“It’s beautiful.”

**Author's Note:**

> I got my best friend to play Explorers of Darkness. She started writing her own fanfiction, so, in a moment of inspiration, we both wrote the same scene to compare. 
> 
> Neither of us have played Explorers of Sky, so mind the non-canon ending.


End file.
